Opinions - The Ultimate Legal Sociabilizers?

[LostHorizon]

SWIM suffers from severe social phobia, and making conversation is extremely difficult and mentally taxing for him. He's tried enough conventional treatments to no avail, and is looking for the best drug available through RX to make him more social and outgoing. He knows of dextroamphetamine (Dexedrine), methamphetamine (Desoxyn), lisdexamfetamine (Vyvanse), and Adderall. GHB (Xyrem) also sounds like a good one, but SWIM thinks he's even less likely to get a script for that than the aforementioned stimulants.

Which one is the best for what he's looking for? Any other suggestions or different classes of drugs are welcome (opioids possibly?). Thanks in advance.

[gmeziscool2354]

SWIY should try natures best cure for social anxiety, good old EtOH (alcohol)
benzodiazapines are a class of anti anxiety drugs which don't structurally resemble alcohol but do in effect.

opiods can be good and bad, swim would reccomend trying poppy pods before he would reccomend any other drug in that cattegory.

swim would like to stress that alcohol is the absolute best drug he has tried for socialization

tramadol is legal in the states without a prescription and can mimick alcohols effects quite well.

delsym (dxm polistrex) can help too but only for experienced users

gmeziscool2354 added 5 Minutes and 14 Seconds later...

edit: the anti anxiety effects of alcohol that is

[polidelaiko]

Tramadol doesn't work like alcohol at all. Its a weak opioid and it has some noradrenergic and serotoninergic effects too, sometimes it leaves baboons very jittery for awhile, and that can increase the social phobia.

[Lamb]

Alcohol's benefit depends on the persons mood and environment. If the person is usually extremely anxious then alcohol can just make them aggressive and even more anti social. Especially if the needless and incredibly frustrating anxiety has made the person depressed.

Alcohol IMO would be a terrible thing to rely on if SWIY is an anxious person because they'll probably start drinking it to stop them feeling anxious in any situation. Alcohol dependence is very easy to get for anxious people and it will ruin SWIY's life. DXM and Opium would be even more of a bad idea IMO unless SWIY has the will power to not rely on the stuff all the time.

The best advice I can give SWIY is to start working out and exercising. Start kick boxing or something. Then SWIY will start to look better and better and feel better and better, as opposed to relying on alcohol etc which will just end up making anyone look and feel like crap.

[LostHorizon]

SWIM can't go into work every day highly intoxicated on alcohol or DXM, plus both of these shouldn't be taken frequently due to negative physiological effects.

SWIM currently takes clonazepam PRN but it only slightly ameliorates anxiety and doesn't help at all in the sociability department. He claims natural treatments (ie. exercising) only help a little bit and it's only in the immediate short term. Natural treatments or therapy don't do anything for the way his brain is "hardwired" to be extremely introverted.

SWIM plans to only use medication as a short-term "protective shield" in making the transition from complete recluse to getting a steady job/become a full-time student. The only way this could potentially happen is through the use of potent drugs.

[Lamb]

Good luck then mate I don't know what to recommend. In my own experience no medication really helped the anxiety apart from Clormethiazole. I'm not sure if that's the exact spelling but they are grey tablets doctors give alcoholics when they are trying to give up alcohol. You feel very chilled out for about 5 minutes with them and you take them throughout the day. They make you drowsy. But coming off them was far harder than the alcohol!

EDIT: It was harder probably due to being on them for 2 years whilst still drinking heavilly.

[RX420]

im not sure why anyone would say tramadol is like alcy but my dog does think it helps him become more sociable.

opiods are def my dogs fav for feeling relaxed and sociable. He can talk about anything and carry on a good convo for as long as he can.

if swiyou cant get a rx for anything def try a kava/kratom mix drink. with some blue lotus wine.

swiyou could always try anti depressants that help with social anxiety and stuff.

[dr. swim]

There's only one 100% effective cure for social phobia, but it's also the most challenging. You just have to practice. The more time you spend talking and interacting with people the more you learn and your social skills will improve over time. At first this can seem impossible, but you really have to learn to ignore that evil little voice inside you that says you're not good enough. Eventually you'll learn that there really is no trick to being a sociable person, other than pushing yourself to be more sociable. No person your going to meet is the same, you should just act however you feel comfortably acting, but learn to listen and understand what other people say and learn how to find ways to relate to other people. It's actually way easier than it might seem, and you don't need drugs to do it.

Any sort of chemical solution that you find will only work temporarily and in the long term may cause more problems than it solves, and may even worsen your current situation.

I used to be a pretty hardcore sociophobe myself so I know how it feels to think that you can't get along with anyone.

If you can't convince yourself to talk to people more, the best way is to, believe it or not, develop a sense of impulsiveness. Eventually you'll learn to listen to the initial spark, and try to just say and do things without putting too much thought into them. I'm not telling to be reckless, but a lot of times, the biggest cause of social phobia is thinking about things too much, first you should just learn how to go with the flow, and once you've mastered this your social skills will develop naturally, you won't even have to think about it you'll just develop social "instincts" per se.

That being said if you're dead set on solving problems with substances, I would personally recommend drinking 3-5 cups of green tea daily. Green tea contains Caffeine and L-theanine which when consumed in combination and at the ratio occuring in tea have a synergistic effect that boosts your alertness, memory, mental prowess, and also greatly reduces stress, which I would assume is one of the main underlying problems in your case. It's also really healthy, so you're not gonna risk any sort of harm that drugs could bring.

Reputation Comments on this post:

	Great advice, although not the easy option
	good advice

[zeno]

Unless SWIM plans to be dupped up for every date, job interview, party, social gathering, or Oscar acceptance speech - pharms are never going to give SWIM any significant lasting change.

Psychotherapy is the #1 trx of choice if SWIM wants an intervention that lasts.

[tycon69]

Swim also has strong social phobia and has went through extensive trails with many medications. Swim finds that the drug that works the best for him is none other than gabapentin (Nuerontin). Most people complain that they don't get anything out of it, but swim swears by it. It usually takes doses in excess of 2400 to get any effect though. Swiy should try it if they had the chance, but shouldn't worry too much if it doesn't work because it works for so few people.
Opiates also seem to help swim alot with his social anxiety. Lower doses like 10-15 mg of oxy have him chatty while higher doses have him not shutting up and connecting with absolutely everyone on an emotional level. Because of it's longer duration and selective norephenephrine reuptake inhibition, tramadol is also a good choice in low doses.
Benzo's did not seem to help swim at all. They seemed to relieve any stress that he had, but did not give him the erge to socialize.
Alcohol does however work for swim, but only slightly.
Green tea seems to have the opposite effect on swim for some reason. Makes him quiet and relaxed.
Swim has not tried many stimulates except for the diet pill phentermine. It did help swim sometimes, but on other days it made the problem worse.

One natural thing that has helped swim is building up self-confidence. I know it is hard, but it can be achieved slowly. It helps swim not feel awkward in social situations, but it still does little to help him think of stuff to say. Well anyways, good luck to ya mate.